Recent DT training...

AKA "Personal Safety."

So, I recently got back from the 3 week academy I had to attend as a new CCO. Yeah, 3 weeks seems pretty short, but it's a bit deceptive because everything in WA DOC is so chopped up. The 3 weeks of "Adult Services Academy" was preceded by 2 weeks of "New Employee Orientation" for most people (although for me it was preceded by the 6 weeks of the CO academy I did back in 05). Then we will have another 3 days of dedicated DTs in about a month or so, and firearms is another week all by itself. So, when you add everything together... it's still short compared to the 20 weeks the BLEA folks have to go through.

Anyway, during "Arrest Week" when we did all our mock scenes and whatnot, we did 4 hours of "Personal Safety". And, I have to say, it was by far the best DT training I've had yet! It consited of level 2 DTs and a brief groundfighting segment, which was quite decent. We also happened to have the luck of double booking the gym with a large group of guys who were getting certified as level 2 DT instructors. So, to solve the problem, they had all the Instructor trainees pair off with each of us. So we basically git individualized instruction.

We basically worked elbows and knees. And for once, the "do repetetive techniques in the air" thing was kept to a minimum. Instead they broke out focus mits and Thai pads and actually managed to work up some "aliveness". The guy I was working with had done Muay Thai, and kept complaining at how the main instructor was "karate-ing up [his] muay thai" which I found to be pretty funny. He really helped me with my knees. I learned both how to knee and elbow in TKD, and my knees sucked. My elbows were actually quite decent, though, go figure. After working the pads, we moved to the BOB dummies which the guy I was working with found just as silly as I did. Man, I hate those things. They don't feel like a person or a heavy bag. Yet, I now see why they are so synonymous with bad RBSD/MA. CAUSE YOU CAN PRACTICE YOUR EYE GOUGES AND CHIN JABS ON A REALLY SOFT PLIABLE FACE THAT DOESN'T MOVE OR FIGHT BACK! HURRR, GURGLE! Worthless. Of course, then the instructors put on chest pads and let us knee them at roughly half speed, which was better. All in all, because the guys I worked with didn't have their heads up their asses, MA-wise, and because you can't really go wrong drilling with focus mits and thai pads, I learned a lot. And it was a decent workout.

After lunch (that's right, I said AFTER LUNCH) we came back to do the groundfighting portion. I'm not sure exactly what the background of our instructor was (I think he learned groundfighting in LE type/DT training seminars), but he seemed to know what he was doing. The rest of the class was clueless, however. He picked some big guy to assist him at first, and when he told him to get in his guard, the guy looked at him like, "...The what, now?" So I said I knew a bit, and proceded to be his grappling dummy for the rest of the day. In fact, the stuff was all so basic (shrimping, Upa, etc.) that I pretty much ended up helping instruct the class. The Instructor was cool with that, and seemed to appreciate the help. In fact, it has inspired me to seek certification as a DT instructor. Which is an area where I think there is a need for quality instructors (I've had the chance to work with some really good and really bad ones so far). Anyway, I didn't really learn anything in the groundfighting portion since it was all so basic. But it was fun, and I feel that it was beneficial to some of the people who had no idea what to do on the ground.

I, personally, would really like to see DTs move in a direction away from the RBSD approach and toward good solid alive training like one finds in Judo and wrestling.

Oh man!
I came here fully expecting some drills on double tapping and how to reduce my split times. :)

You're training does sound much better than the watered down, quasi-aikido I was offered by the Department of Juvenile Justice for one of my last jobs. Is this something open to civilians, or strictly LEO?

And, no, it's not open to civilians. But why would you want it to be? You'd get better training at a decent MMA school, by far.

I was hoping to mention it to some of the people at my old job. Few of them would ever consider MMA training, or any not required MA training, and really need something better. I know it's just a matter of time before one of the youths with wrestling experience points out how important ground work is for a staff member. This sounded like what they need.

Ah, well if they're Juvi CO's they're not really civilians, though. No? But there should be stuff offered in their state. We have the quasi Aikido stuff too. Those are "level 1" DT's. Striking and "self defense" are level 2. Then there's ground, weapon retention, etc. If I become a DT instructor, I'll eventually be "certified" in all those. So, yes, I will be a "certified ground fighting instructor"! LOL. Take that, Sammi Franco!